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Why Republicans Won’t Even Try to Pass a Budget for 2019

JOSHUA ROBERTS

By The Fiscal Times Staff

April 23, 2018

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Budget expert Stan Collender at Forbes slams Republicans for not even attempting to pass a budget for the fiscal year that starts October 1. “The House and Senate Budget Committees only have one job -- to adopt a budget resolution -- and this year they are unwilling, incapable or just stomping their feet and refusing to do what the Congressional Budget Act specifically requires of them,” he writes.

The politics at play: “A vote on a budget resolution would either force congressional Republicans to go on record in favor of the bigger-than-life deficits or vote against a budget that authoritatively projects the impact of the tax cuts and spending increases most of them just approved, both of which would be politically problematic. Their third choice -- vote for a budget with greatly reduced deficits because of proposed cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- would be even more politically unpalatable.”